HST31022: Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Britain, 1923-1945

HST31022: Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Britain, 1923-1945

40 credits (semesters 1 and 2)

Module Leader: Professor Julie Gottlieb (2024-25)


Module Summary

Through seminars, this special subject module examines three inter-related issues in order to assess the impact of fascism on Britain between the wars: the rise of British fascist organisations themselves; organised forms of British resistance to domestic and international fascism; and the British political, intellectual and diplomatic elites’ responses to Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany in the build up to the Second World. Making full use of one of the best archives for this purpose in the country held here in the Special Collections of the University Library, first we examine the political organization, the ideas and the culture of ‘native’ British fascism from its inception in 1923 to the Second World War. 

Second, we will then move on to exploring active and ideological responses and resistance to British fascist and racist organisations by a loose coalition of Communists, Socialists, Liberals and even Conservatives, as well as the resistance mounted by those religious and ethnic groups most affected by fascist racial provocation and violence. By so doing, we will be concerned to measure the distance between the political centre and the peripheries. 

Third, we will consider how contemporary interpretations of fascism, and formal and more informal relations with the European dictatorships, contributed to the National Government’s policy of appeasement on the one hand, and, on the other hand, to the greater definition of what was quintessentially “British” about Britain’s war aims with the outbreak of World War Two.  In assessing the significance and impact of fascism in Britain, we will ask some of the following questions: why was Britain almost alone in Europe in resisting authoritarian government during the 1930s? Why have historians been so fascinated by the British Union of Fascists (BUF) in particular, a movement that only recruited up to 50,000 members at its height? What documentary evidence is available from the study of British fascism and anti-fascism, and how has the expansion of the archival evidence (from public records to personal testimonies, from personal accounts to more systematic archiving of miscellaneous material) shifted perceptions of British extremist politics? How has the narrative of the failure of British fascism been written and revised from the perspectives of either social, oral, gender or cultural history? Was British anti-fascism merely ‘reactive’—a range of political forces mobilized to meet the Mosleyite challenge—or was it equally ideologically motivated? 

Considering the ultimate success of anti-fascism, how can we account for the disorganized nature of Britain’s anti-fascism movement—was there an identifiable anti-fascist movement as such? Was appeasement a policy underlined by tacit sympathy for European fascist regimes or was it merely a pragmatic, if inglorious, early response to Nazi aggression? Was the internment of British fascists under Defence Regulation 18B at variance with Britain’s claim to be fighting a war in defence of democracy? We will approach these and other questions by consulting primary source material, including political pamphlets and propaganda, newspapers, public records, memoirs, oral testimonies, visual material, film and recordings, and novels.



Aims

● To familiarize students with the historical events and political processes that assured the relative marginality of the British extreme Right in the inter-war period, including the role played by organized anti-fascist campaigns.

● To place fascist politics in a broader context by examining the wider resonances of the ideas and the culture of the fascist groups themselves, as well as the competition among parties for political space in the inter-war period. 

● Through seminars, to provide an opportunity to assess the value and limitations of primary source material, and to reflect on the historiography of the subject within the context of group questioning and discussion.

● Seminars will allow time for the development of skills in constructing and effectively presenting an argument orally.



Learning Outcomes

● Students will have gained a broad understanding of the history of political extremism in the inter-war period, and the ability to contextualize this history within British political history more generally.

● Students will have gained the ability to critically assess the value and the uses of primary and secondary sources.

● Students will be able to construct a consistent argument by the appropriate use of evidence, and will have developed skills in active reading and critical thinking.

● Students will have gained greater confidence—and skill—in presenting ideas orally and in writing. 


Assessment


Please see this page for further information about assessment.  


Selected Reading